James City certainly is a different place than it was 37 years ago when David Hertzler bought the land on which Season's Trace would be built off Longhill Road. And though some folks feel the development that has physically changed the county has also defaced it, perhaps all those houses have, in some ways changed it for the better. At Wednesday's Planning Commission meeting, Hertzler offered an anecdote: "When I first went to the Trace and bought it, I drove back in the property in my vehicle.

MIDDLESEX — A Topping man who owned a motorcycle repair shop and who a prosecutor said had been expanding his business by making and selling moonshine, only to end up in jail after firing a shotgun at his drinking buddy, will serve another month behind bars before he is released. Will Rogers, 35, was sentenced Wednesday in Middlesex County Circuit Court to 14 months in prison on convictions for illegally manufacturing moonshine, firing a shotgun into an occupied pickup — his friend, Jared Congleton, ducked and managed to escape injury — and driving with a suspended license.

MIDDLESEX - A Topping man who was arrested in December on firearms and alcohol manufacturing charges following a raid at his motorcycle shop told a judge Monday morning he has hired a Hampton defense attorney to represent him. Will Rogers, 34, made a brief appearance in Middlesex County General District Court to advise a judge of his attorney arrangements. Wearing orange jail-issue coveralls and leg shackles, Rogers told Judge Jeffrey W. Shaw he is hiring Timothy Clancy to represent him. A Dec. 21 raid by Middlesex County Sheriff's deputies and a Virginia State Police tactical team turned up a moonshine manufacturing operation at Rogers' business, called The Chop Shop, according to court records.

MIDDLESEX - A case that involved moonshine, an argument over women and a shotgun blast into an occupied pickup took a surprising twist on Monday when a witness declined to answer questions about how much he had been drinking prior to the incident over fears the information could be used against him. Topping resident William H. Rogers was in Middlesex General District Court in a preliminary hearing on multiple felony firearms and attempted malicious...

MIDDLESEX — A Topping man who owned a motorcycle repair shop and who a prosecutor said had been expanding his business by making and selling moonshine, only to end up in jail after firing a shotgun at his drinking buddy, will serve another month behind bars before he is released. Will Rogers, 35, was sentenced Wednesday in Middlesex County Circuit Court to 14 months in prison on convictions for illegally manufacturing moonshine, firing a shotgun into an occupied pickup — his friend, Jared Congleton, ducked and managed to escape injury — and driving with a suspended license.

MIDDLESEX - A case that involved moonshine, an argument over women and a shotgun blast into an occupied pickup took a surprising twist on Monday when a witness declined to answer questions about how much he had been drinking prior to the incident over fears the information could be used against him. Topping resident William H. Rogers was in Middlesex General District Court in a preliminary hearing on multiple felony firearms and attempted malicious...

THE DUKES OF HAZZARD Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, crude and drug-related humor, language and comic action violence. What it's about: Good ol' boys run moonshine, evade the law and save their county from strip-mining from the driver's seat of their hot rod, General Lee. The Kid Attractor Factor: Stuff blows up, cars crash, grownups cuss and Jessica Simpson shakes what's she's got. Good lessons/bad lessons: You get rich off...

State agents have destroyed one of the largest moonshine operations found in Patrick County's history, and Sheriff Jay Gregory said Friday they were searching for a suspect. Alcoholic Beverage Control agents found the illegal distillery hidden behind camouflage nets near Charity at the Franklin County line, Gregory said. The still was capable of producing 1,800 gallons of illicit whiskey each week and was the biggest operation local officials can remember ever being found in the county, he said.

A 72-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman from Suffolk are charged with having untaxed whiskey. ABC agents said they seized three gallons of moonshine from a Suffolk home Friday morning -- the result of an undercover investigation tracking sources of the homemade liquor. Officials said Johnny Stallings, 72, and Catherine Hobson, 84, were charged with possession of untaxed whiskey after agents with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control searched the home they share on Carolina Road, which is south of the Suffolk Municipal Airport.

The keen noses of a couple of sheriff's deputies have been credited with leading police to a moonshine still in the Pinetta area and the arrest of a 61-year-old resident last week. Donald D. Webster of Route 704 was charged early Friday with illegally making alcohol. Lt. Danny Diggs of the county Sheriff's Department said Sgt. W.D. Ford and Deputy Richard Husted stumbled onto the distilling apparatus on Thursday while at Webster's residence on other business. "They noticed an unusual smell, and when they looked in a window of a detached shed they saw the still," where a batch of illegal whiskey appeared to be cooking, he said.

MIDDLESEX - A Topping man who was arrested in December on firearms and alcohol manufacturing charges following a raid at his motorcycle shop told a judge Monday morning he has hired a Hampton defense attorney to represent him. Will Rogers, 34, made a brief appearance in Middlesex County General District Court to advise a judge of his attorney arrangements. Wearing orange jail-issue coveralls and leg shackles, Rogers told Judge Jeffrey W. Shaw he is hiring Timothy Clancy to represent him. A Dec. 21 raid by Middlesex County Sheriff's deputies and a Virginia State Police tactical team turned up a moonshine manufacturing operation at Rogers' business, called The Chop Shop, according to court records.

MIDDLESEX — On Route 33 past St. Clare Walker Middle School, Will Rogers ran a motorcycle repair business called "The Chop Shop" where a recent raid turned up more than the standard fluids such as oils and lubricants. The authorities found moonshine. Capt. Mickey Sampson of the Middlesex County Sheriff's Office said it's been at least 15 years since a moonshine raid went down in the county. Sheriff's deputies and a Virginia State Police tactical team went to Rogers' shop on Dec. 21 following an investigation into a shooting that allegedly occurred there on Dec. 15. On that day, Rogers and a friend, Jared Congleton, had been drinking all day and were arguing over a woman, according to search warrant affidavits filed in Middlesex County Circuit Court.

James City certainly is a different place than it was 37 years ago when David Hertzler bought the land on which Season's Trace would be built off Longhill Road. And though some folks feel the development that has physically changed the county has also defaced it, perhaps all those houses have, in some ways changed it for the better. At Wednesday's Planning Commission meeting, Hertzler offered an anecdote: "When I first went to the Trace and bought it, I drove back in the property in my vehicle.

A 72-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman from Suffolk are charged with having untaxed whiskey. ABC agents said they seized three gallons of moonshine from a Suffolk home Friday morning -- the result of an undercover investigation tracking sources of the homemade liquor. Officials said Johnny Stallings, 72, and Catherine Hobson, 84, were charged with possession of untaxed whiskey after agents with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control searched the home they share on Carolina Road, which is south of the Suffolk Municipal Airport.

It's often a dirty job, but agents of the 20-year-old squad take pleasure in taking down moonshiners. Once an agent has chased a bootlegger through the underbrush, demolished a moonshine still with a pickax and watched the white lightning flow into the soil, other law-enforcement jobs begin to look mundane. For Jay Calhoun, the work sure beats any job that requires wearing a tie and filling out forms. "This is really what I was cut out to do," he said. "I always wanted to work outdoors."

THE DUKES OF HAZZARD Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, crude and drug-related humor, language and comic action violence. What it's about: Good ol' boys run moonshine, evade the law and save their county from strip-mining from the driver's seat of their hot rod, General Lee. The Kid Attractor Factor: Stuff blows up, cars crash, grownups cuss and Jessica Simpson shakes what's she's got. Good lessons/bad lessons: You get rich off...

This is the land of heat and pressure, boom and bust, tears and little stone crosses. You have to mean to come here, because it's well off the main highway - any main highway. Then again, this is Fairyland, and all readers of fairy tales know that the entrance is well-hidden. Here's a tip: It's behind the Haynes 57 service station. In a forest gully just past the gasoline pumps, fairy stones erode from the mountains. Legend says fairies were dancing here when news came of Jesus' crucifixion.

Two Ivor men were charged Thursday with allegedly making moonshine. John Fredrick Duck, 49, and James Francis Bradshaw, 25, both of Route 2, turned themselves in to the Sheriff's Department shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday. They were charged with illegally manufacturing untaxed whiskey. Duck was arrested on the same charge in Surry County on Dec. 5, when Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board officers raided a still located off Route 617. On Thursday, ABC officers, assisted by county deputies, went to Duck's residence to present a search warrant.

The outing hit 17 sites that played a role in the mid-20th century life in Franklin County. The young moonshiner told of how a tax man came up to him asked him where his family was. "At the still," he said. "Then he told he'd give me a dollar if I took him to the still," said the moonshiner, played by Garren Bare, 24, of Roanoke. The revenuer said he'd give him the dollar when he got back. "I had to tell him, 'Mister, you ain't comin' back.' " Franklin County has never been much ashamed of its long association with untaxed liquor.

John Pierce was brewing a batch of moonshine at a still along the Dismal Swamp Canal on Thursday morning when law officers quietly walked up on him, officials said. All Pierce could do was swear and give up peacefully. As the handcuffs clicked around Pierce's wrists, game warden Fred Hampton said, Pierce complained that his dogs, a dalmatian and a beagle, had not barked. Pierce, a 55-year-old Camden, N.C., resident, is the first person in the region arrested on charges of moonshining in recent years, said Pat Forbis, district supervisor for the N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement Agency.